Sitting By The Furnace
by GoodyGoody23
Summary: Short oneshot written for nadia the demented one's challenge on the Twilight Challenge forum. Serious conversation between two Cullens sitting beside a fire. Reference to string made. Slight Hercules and History Channel influence. Feedback appreciated.


_Sitting By The Furnace_

"What do you think would happen if today – right here, right now – the world were to end?" Rosalie asked the boy next to her, both of them staring into the blazing fire they were sitting before.

"The same thing that would happen in any other 'what if' situation. Anything. I mean, we could cease to exist, we could exist in a completely different way, or, depending on a person's views, life could go on as we know it." He answered her, a contemplative look resting in his warm eyes. "For example: someone's boyfriend could break up with them, and the end of the world would seem the only logical thing to follow. Or, say, perhaps, the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies collide – galactic cannibalism in all its devastating glory – and the earth, and everything and everyone on it are obliterated; vanished from the universe, unexisting in any shape, way, or form. Another possibility is that there is another world war, and atomic bombs are used excessively. The humans all die out, and in turn, so do vampires, as they would be left without nourishment. There are a million different ways; a billion different answers I could conceive, and every single one of them would be a plausible answer to the question you are asking."

The blonde goddess nodded in silence, her eyebrows pulling together fractionally as she pondered the endless possibilities on how life could end.

"If you don't mind me asking though," he paused, and then continued at her nodded consent, "what made you think of such a question?"

Rosalie didn't turn to look at her brother as she stared into the flames, watching them dance along the logs and flake the wood into ashes.

"I guess just being here," she answered at last, "looking into this fire with its utterly simplistic beauty. How everything is reflected in its embers; how all the answers seemed to be hidden in its depths. It just came to me." She trailed off, only now looking away from the heat to glance at Jasper sitting beside her.

"When I look into the flames, I see life. Their burning signifies the life – the fire – burning in each of us. How it can ignite so quickly, and be doused equally as fast; disappear silently, and without alarm. It's like the strings of life, I suppose; how each person's expiration comes at a different time, making their string longer or shorter than another. And at any moment it can be cut; limp when it was once taut."

"How long do you suppose our strings are?" Rosalie enquired, throwing a quick grin at him.

"I can't even begin to imagine." He answered.

"Do you think we even have one?" Now she looked worried, the concern etching itself onto her face contrasting with its youthful appearance.

"I believe so. After all, we too are alive, even if it is not in the traditional sense of the word. We are still moving; breathing; conscious, are we not? Why wouldn't we? Eternity can only last so long, when it comes down to it. I could not ever fathom something such as an endless span of time." Jasper's response was both reassuring and questioning at the same time, as it seemed every time one question was answered another appeared. Ironic how it always seemed to happen that way, how nothing ever seemed to be resolved.

"Maybe you cannot see such a thing because you cannot open your mind enough to see it. We often see what we would like – not what it always there. It's a flaw in our makeup. We can't seem to be able to truly consider the idea that something is larger than our small world. The unknown is frightening to many, why should we expect ourselves to act any differently when faced with such a thing. We were at one point human, after all."

Jasper didn't answer, and Rosalie hadn't expected him to. It was so hard sometimes to think of his sister this way – like she wasn't completely oblivious like she usually seemed to be. Rosalie had many sides, but this was one that was rarely seen, and Jasper was glad that he was the one to witness it. Seeing someone shed in a different light was something refreshing and unexpected, two traits that became rarities during an immortal life. But did he honestly not believe in immortality; in forever, or was his sister right, and there was some fatal mishap in the composure of his mind that wouldn't allow him to even begin to conceive such an unbelievable concept? It was, indeed, a hard thing to think about. So how had his beautiful, adopted sister who always seemed to be so stuck on herself thought about it so much. Jasper couldn't help but wonder how many times she had contemplated the answers to the questions they had been asking one another.

"Isn't the fire beautiful?" she sighed, breaking him from his reverie. He gazed at the jumping flames for a moment, thinking about all the questions they had spawned.

"You know, it really is."

_AN: Sorry if there was any incorrect grammar, but I sent it to my beta and she didn't get it back to me yet so... Anyways, I hoped you liked it, and if you didn't that's okay too. Feedback either way is appreciated. Written for nadia the demented one's challenge on the Twilight Challenge forum._

_P.S. Slight Hercules reference and the thing about the galactic cannibalism is true. Saw it on the History Channel. _:)


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